狭舌垂头菊 xia she chui tou ju

Stem solitary, erect, scapelike, 10-32 cm tall, 1.5-3 mm in diam. at base, proximally glabrous, distally white floccose and shortly brown pilose. Basal leaves petiolate; petiole glabrous, 2.6-11.5 cm, base enlarged sheathed; leaf blade orbicular-reniform or reniform, 0.7-2 × 1.5-4 cm, glabrous, palmately veined, margin angular-dentate, white pilose; sinus narrow, basal lobes convergent, subsucculent. Proximal stem leaf solitary, shortly petiolate or sessile, smaller, broadly reniform, base sheathed, margin coarsely angularly dentate. Middle to distal stem leaves absent or bracteal and oblong. Capitulum solitary, nodding. Involucre hemispheric, 1.3-1.6 × to 2 cm, outside glabrous; phyllaries 9-14, in 2 rows, purple; outer phyllaries narrowly lanceolate, 1.5-2 mm wide; inner phyllaries oblong, 3-5 mm wide, margin brown ciliate, apex acuminate or acute, mucronate. Ray florets yellow; lamina linear-lanceolate, 2.5-3.5 cm, ca. 5 mm wide at base, membranous, transparent, with 6 or 7 brown veins, apex long acuminate, 3-lobed. Tubular florets numerous, yellow, 7-9 mm; tube ca. 3 mm; limb 2-2.5 mm wide. Achenes cylindric, ca. 7 mm, ribbed. Pappus white, as long as tubular corolla. Fl. and fr. Jul-Aug. 2n = 58*.

● Swamps, stream banks, scrub, alpine meadows, alpine crevices, gravelly areas on mountains; 3700-5000 m. W Qinghai, NW Sichuan.